Monthly Archives: May 2014

Wow guys, the last three weeks have been SUCH a whirlwind! First, sorry about the radio silence! I’ve hardly had time for sleep, let alone keeping you all in the loop. So I guess its time to start catching you up on everything thats been going on…

#1: My first triathlon is TOMORROW!!! I’m getting really nervous, I can’t believe I’m racing already. Its been really hard to fit training into my schedule the last couple of weeks because of items #2 and 3. But I think I’m ready. I’ll get in a short easy run today and maybe some yoga to keep my muscles moving. Hopefully I’ll start my triathlon career with a bang Sunday!

#2: I have been offered a HUGE promotion at work. I am the new store manager at Great Outdoor Provision Company in Greenville, NC. I am really excited about the new opportunity. I’ve been at the store training all week, and the staff there have been really welcoming and helpful with my transition into the shop.

#3: Because of the job offer, we’ll be moving to Greenville, NC. We’re going to move slowly. I’m in Greenville now, staying in a hotel and working on finding a place to live. Andrew has a contract with the Whitewater Center that ends in November, and our lease ends in November. Sometime this fall Andrew will join me in Greenville.

#4: This is the one I’ve been dreading sharing. Because I am starting a new position in a new shop in a new city, Andrew and I have decided to delay our thru-hike. Don’t worry, we will still complete the hike, it’ll just be sometime next year. Hopefully you all choose to keep following along our now-extended training timeline and the thru-hike eventually!

I know the blog has been silent the last week, we’ve been on a much needed vacation.

We started our vacation up in Shenandoah National Park with a couple of my friends from college. We took advantage of the opportunity to cross off one of our Bucket List hikes – Old Rag Mountain. This mountain isn’t all that tall, and the trail isn’t that long, but it is steep and rocky. Shenandoah actually doesn’t allow pets on the trail because of the amount of scrambling on the trail. It is an AMAZING hike with an amazing view. But, be warned, it’ll kick your butt!

The park recommends you allow 7 hours for this 9 mile hike, Andrew and I finished it in just over 4. The first 3.2 miles up Old Rag took us the same amount of time (2 hours) as the last 5.8 miles down the mountain. The first and last 0.7 miles of trail are up a paved road from the parking lot to the trail head. Starting about 1.5 or 2 miles in, the trail is a rock scramble, at times forcing you to pull yourself up through rock chimneys. Once you hit the summit, though, the view is worth the work. Of the 5.8 miles down from the summit, close to 3 miles are fire road.

After Old Rag Mountain kicked our butts, we met up with Shana and Robert at Big Meadows. Saturday we did a short hike with Shana, Robert, and their two dogs on the Rose River Loop Trail. We tried (and failed) to beat the rain off the trail – it started pouring on us about 1 mile from the end of the trail. We got back to the campsite and caught a glimpse of the radar and the strong storms that were expected the rest of the night, and decided to cut the trip short.

After the weekend in Shenandoah, we headed down to Hilton Head Island to meet my parents for a few days. We got in some good kayaking on Skull Creek. We kept our vacation tradition and rented a tandem bike for a day to ride around the island 🙂

As we’ve been working on planning the thru-hike, we’ve been trying to think of ways to give back to the trail community. We are getting most of our hike sponsored, so we want to pay it forward. We also want to raise awareness about the trail and get people outside.

We LOVE yoga. We strongly believe in the healing powers of yoga. We also use yoga to train for other sports that we enjoy. We practice together almost every night.

So what better way for us to give a unique gift to the trail community than to use yoga to raise money?!

We’re are very excited to announce that we will be partnering with Sage Rountree to raise money for Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (FMST) as Carrboro Yoga Company‘s fall Karma Connection. The proceeds from the three donation-based classes in September, October, and November will be donated to FMST. We will be attending the October 19 class and will speak about the trail and our hike. Townsend Bertram has donated an awesome prize package from their rental program – gear for a weekend away for 2 people (a tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads, and 2 packs), a $150 value – that we’ll be giving away at the October 19 class.

We are also excited to announce that we’ll be partnering with Anna Levesque of Girls At Play to hold a donation-based restorative yoga practice at a Blue Ridge Parkway scenic overlook in Asheville. We’re still hashing out the details of this event, we’ll post them as soon as we figure them out.